Anthony Amoroso MD - Main Differences Between Physicians and Physician Assistants

Anthony Amoroso MD - Main Differences Between Physicians and Physician Assistants At often times, the physician assistant is sometimes seen as the physician's representative. They're seen as the person who is trained and supervised under the supervision of the physician according to his or her field of specialty and scope of practice. The physician can be a dentist, a psychologists, a surgeon, a general health practitioner or something else, and it's the PA who has to be able to adapt to the physician's specialty. The PA and the physician are meant to work collaboratively so that they give their patients the best medical care and treatment. Even with all this being the way it is, there are still distinguishable differences between these 2 health care workers. Differences between the PA and the physician are....

-The amount of school involved in becoming either a PA or a physician. PAs don't have to be in school for nearly a decade to become certified whereas physicians can be in school for 14 years or more.

Physicians have to get intern at a hospital and they have to get into a residency before they can even get admission into a medical school. For a physician assistant, they don't have to get into a internship or residency to get into a PA program to get certified. Some PAs don't even get certified and they still work in hospitals because their employer has seen that they have the education that is needed.

-PAs and physicians have difference responsibilities and duties when it comes to the patient's health care. Physicians are the ones who are primarily responsible for the patient's care and PAs are supervised

by the physician when they are providing care for that physician's patients. Patients aren't the PA's responsibility, they are the physician's.

-The daily duties that PA does are routine and they aren't that difficult to perform. They do office work and do routine patient tasks, but the physician's scope of practice can be more complex which is why they supervise PAs.

-PAs and physicians are different practitioners because a physician, a doctor or a surgeon all work independently without anyone looking over them to make sure a mistake isn't made. A PA doesn't work independently... ever. They are always under the care and supervision of a physician to make sure that they don't make mistakes.

-Its mandatory that PAs take a re-certification exam every 6 years so that they are remain up to date with the changes in the medical world, and stay knowledgeable.